Daily Dose Of Jazz…
James Wesley “Bubber” Miley was born April 3, 1903 in Aiken, South Carolina into a musical family. At the age of six, he and his family moved to New York City, New York where, as a child, he occasionally sang for money on the streets, and later, at the age of 14, studied the trombone and cornet.
In 1920, after having served in the Navy for 18 months, he joined a jazz formation named the Carolina Five, and remained a member for the next three years, playing small clubs and boat rides all around New York City. After leaving the band at the age of 19, Miley briefly toured the Southern States with a show titled The Sunny South, and then joined Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds, replacing trumpeter Johnny Dunn. They regularly performed in clubs around New York City and Chicago, Illinois. While touring in Chicago, he heard King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band playing and was captivated by Oliver’s use of mutes. Soon Miley found his own voice by combining the straight and plunger mute with a growling sound.
Miley’s talent and unique style were soon noticed in New York’s jazz scene by Duke Ellington who wanted him to jump in for trumpeter Arthur Whetsel. His collaboration with Ellington has secured his place in jazz history. Early Ellington hits, such as Black and Tan Fantasy, Doin’ the Voom Voom, East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, The Mooche, and Creole Love Call, prominently featured Miley’s solo work.
After leaving Ellington’s orchestra in 1929, Bubber joined Noble Sissle’s Orchestra for a one-month tour to Paris, France. After returning to New York, he recorded with groups led by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Hoagy Carmichael, Zutty Singleton and with Leo Reisman’s society dance band. In 1930, he recorded six songs for Victor Records under the name Bubber Miley and his Mileage Makers, a formation of thirteen musicians including clarinetist Buster Bailey.
His alcoholism terminally affected his life. Trumpet and cornetist Bubber Miley who specialized in the use of the plunger mute, transitioned from tuberculosis on May 20, 1932 on Welfare Island in New York City.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Oleg Leonidovich Lundstrem was born April 2, 1916 into a family of musicians in Chita, Transbaikal Oblast. His family moved to Harbin, China when he was five. By 1935, inspired by Duke Ellington’s Dear Old Southland record which he purchased, he joined forces with eight other young Russian amateur musicians and formed the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra. The following year the band moved to Shanghai, China where they immediately became popular among the public. The band was an important part of Shanghai’s jazz scene until 1947, along with Buck Clayton Orchestra.
After World War II, in 1947 Oleg returned to the Soviet Union and settled in Kazan, where he worked as a violinist in the opera and ballet theatre, while keeping his jazz orchestra as a side act. 1956 saw the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra moving to Moscow where he was appointed by the Soviet cultural authorities as the orchestra’s art director and conductor.
His orchestra was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest continuously existing jazz band in the world, the official name being The State Oleg Lundstrem Chamber Orchestra of Jazz Music.
Composer and conductor Oleg Lundstrem, also spelled Lundstroem or Lundström, transitioned from natural causes at his home on October 14, 2005 in Korolyov, Moscow Oblast at the age of 89.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jimmy Vass was born March 31, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and acquired his first saxophone at age 18. After honing his chops on the local club scene, he relocated to New York City in 1963, working a series of day jobs while moonlighting as a musician.
Vass first appeared on record in 1968 via Sunny Murray’s Hard Cores. With 1971’s Soul Story, he began an extended collaboration with the great soul-jazz organist Charles Earland. His most notable partnership paired him with avant-jazz pianist Andrew Hill, beginning with 1975’s Divine Revelation.
He played on Roberta Flack’s Feel Like Makin’ Love. He also lent his talents to recording sessions with Muhal Richard Abrams, Rashied Ali, Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, Ronnie Boykins and Woody Shaw. Never leading a recording date of his own, in the autumn of his career Jimmy worked as a music instructor and led his own New York-based group playing standards and originals.
Alto and soprano saxophonist and flutist Jimmy Vass, who emerged as one of the premier jazz sidemen of the 1970s, transitioned on September 21, 2006, at the age of 69.
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Russ Spiegel was born March 30, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, and raised in Santa Monica, California. His family was musical as he has an older sister who plays the bluegrass fiddle, a pianist and composer brother and a father who is an avid amateur jazz trumpeter.
A fan of pop radio as a youngster, Russ discovered rock music as he entered his teens. Picking up the electric guitar he took lessons at a local music store, eventually buying a Fender Stratocaster. He started jamming with area musicians, which led to forming a rock cover band. Finishing high school in Frankfurt, Germany he enrolled in the University of Maryland that had a campus in Munich, Germany. While there, he formed a progressive-rock band, joined a local R&B and soul unit, and began learning jazz standards. In 1982 Spiegel returned to the U.S. to complete his bachelor’s degree at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, earning a degree in philosophy.
In 1986 had Spiegel in Boston, Massachusetts on scholarship at Berklee College of Music. Upon completion of his studies, he relocated to Germany in 1988 where he gradually made contacts in the music world. He began playing on military bases and at local jazz clubs and festivals. During a stint in Paris, France he formed a quartet called Guitar Hell, which toured widely in France and Germany. He soon found himself in demand as a guitarist and electric bassist with various European big bands, jazz ensembles, and blues groups.
Around the same time, Russ joined the band of German jazz organist Barbara Dennerlein and toured Europe with her before receiving the coveted Jazz Scholarship by the city of Frankfurt for his contributions to the city’s artistic scene.
In 2001 Spiegel returned to the U.S. settled in New York City and studied under teachers Adam Rogers, Paul Bollenback, Ben Monder and John Patitucci, receiving his master’s degree in jazz performance from the City College of New York.
In 2008 his Jazz/North Indian classical fusion ensemble, Sundar Shor, undertook a tour of India under the auspices of the American Center, and it has toured widely in Europe as well. Guitarist Russ Spiegel continues to perform and record.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Ladislav Déczi was born on March 29, 1938 in Bernolákovo, Czechoslovakia and showed an interest in the trumpet while in elementary school. He went through several music ensembles in high school and during his military service performed in Prague, Czechoslovakia. After his discharge he remained in Prague and started performing with the Rokoko Theater Sextet and then with the Jazz Outsiders. He then went on to work with Karel Velebny’s S+HQ and as the frontman for the Reduta Quartet.
By the mid-Sixties he founded Jazz Celulla, joined the Czechoslovak All Star Band, the Jazz Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio, and the Dance Orchestra of the Czechoslovak Radio. He recorded several solo albums, composed orchestral compositions.
Emigrating to America in 1986 he again took the frontman space for Celula New York. He performed with Elvin Jones, Bill Watrous, Junior Cook, Dave Weckl and Sonny Costanzo. He recorded several duo albums with Sarka Dvorak and composed an abundance of music for film and television productions. He has won several awards during his career and has toured Eastern Europe especially his homeland, Germany and Austria.
Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Laco Déczi, who also paints, continues to perform, compose and record.
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